#The Nobelman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks

[saphirabluish]

Finished these two this week. :)

[bitesizebookreviews]

The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks

The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks

Mackenzi Lee

592 pages

Katherine Tegen Books, 2021

“I’m not going to spend the rest of my life heaving myself up this goddamn mountain when everyone else gets a flat country road. Something is wrong with me, and I’m either going to fix it or it’s going to kill me. I won’t go away or heal or get better. I’m either broken or I’m not.” 

The third, and youngest, Montague sibling finally gets his own book. The First two installments can be read about here and here.  In the last book, Adrian Montague was just a baby. This book finds him an adult, a passionate writer of liberal politics, engaged to be married, nearly ready to take his father’s place in the House of Lords. But the thing that really defines him is his mental illness. (Today we’d likely say he has OCD and anxiety, but those weren’t actual diagnoses in the 18th Century). Adrian’s brain makes day-to-day living extremely difficult. 

Adrian’s mother died six months before the start of this book, and to say he isn’t handling it well is an understatement. When her belongings are returned to him, it includes a broken spyglass that she was never without. This spyglass becomes an object of Adrian’s obsession, and the start of a mystery that he can’t let go. He discovers that he has two older siblings, and he and his newfound brother Monty travel to Morocco, Portugal (where they find Felicity) and Iceland to try to uncover this mystery of exactly how their mother died. But Adrian’s mental health, and the secrets that Monty holds could put everything in jeopardy. 

Every single book in this series has been so much fun. This one took a slightly more serious tone, with Adrian’s mental health almost taking the forefront of the story even above the spyglass mystery. It’s still written nicely and with a lot of character development. Even Monty and Felicity - nearly two decades older than Adrian- still get to do some growing up. It’s lovely when a found family trope in literature is an actual blood-related family. 

[cattocavo]

A Henry 'Monty' Montague bc he's my comfort character

[greeplurch]

God bless the fact that I wake up at 4 am for work so I can binge the fuck out of this book I pre-ordered in 2019 and have seen the release date pushed back twice. Today I can finally scratch that itch.

[bookofmirth]

2020 book releases

Every year I do these, and every year I have to revise them because I hear about more books. These are generally organized by adult and YA, and by (U.S.) release date. Then I noted what genre they are. Feel free to add on in reblogs! Bold are my most anticipated, and I put a * if there is queer rep, because I’m like that.

Adult releases:

Come Tumbling Down, by Seanan McGuire (fantasy, Jan. 7th)*

A Beginning At the End, by Mike Chen (speculative, Jan. 14th)

Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey (speculative, Feb. 4th)*

Escape Routes, by Naomi Ishiguro (short stories, Feb. 6th)

House of Trelawney, by Hannah Rothschild (contemporary, Feb. 11th)

The Mirror and The Light, by Hilary Mantel (historical, March) (been waiting five years for this, nbd)

House of Earth and Blood, by Sarah J. Maas (fantasy, March 3rd)

Glass Town, by Isabel Greenberg (graphic, March 3rd)

The Companions, by Katie M. Flynn (sci-fi, March 3rd)

My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell (literary, March 10th)

The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel (literary, March 24th)

The City We Became, by N.K. Jemisin (sci-fi, March 24th)

Death In Her Hands, by Otessa Moshfegh (literary, April 21st)

The Switch, by Beth O’Leary (romance, April 30th)

Second First Impressions, by Sally Thorne (romance, May 19th)

Something to Talk About, by Meryl Wilsner (romance, June)*

Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (sci-fi/fantasy, June 2nd)*

The Empire of Gold, by S.A. Chakraborty (AHHHHH, fantasy, June 30th)*

Sisters, by Daisy Johnson (literary, July 2nd)

Empire of the Vampire, by Jay Kristoff (fantasy, Sept. 3rd)

The Stormlight Archive 4 (The Rhythm of War? fantasy, Nov. 17th)

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab (fantasy, fall)

A Day Like Today, by Sarah Moss (literary, no date)

YA releases:

Blood Countess, by Lana Popovic (fantasy, Jan. 28th)*

The King of Crows, by Libba Bray (historical fantasy, Feb. 4th)

Yes No Maybe So, by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (contemporary, Feb. 4th)

Witches of Ash and Ruin, by E. Latimer (fantasy, March 3rd)*

Be Not Far From Me, by Mindy McGinnis (contemporary? mystery? March 3rd)

The Midnight Lie, by Marie Rutkoski (SCREECH, March 3rd)

Bone Crier’s Moon, by Kathryn Purdie (fantasy, March 10th)

A Field Guide to Getting Lost, by Joy McCullough (technically middle grade, April 14th)

The Deck of Omens, by Christina Lynn Herman (fantasy, April 21st)*

Girl, Serpent, Thorn, by Melissa Bashardoust (fantasy, May 12th)*

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins (speculative, May 19th)

My Calamity Jane, by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (historical, June 2nd)

The Damned, by Renee Ahdieh (fantasy, June 9th)

A Peculiar Peril, by Jeff Vandermeer (sci-fi, July 7th)

A Nobelman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks, by Mackenzi Lee (historical, Aug. 18th)*

The Silvered Serpents, by Roshani Chokshi (historical fantasy, Sept. 22nd)

Bridge of Souls, by Victoria Schwab (middle grade, fall)

World of Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas (fall?)